Guns N’ Roses - Chinese Democracy

There were a few moments in the last 17 years that it felt like this album was likely to arrive after the dawning of actual Chinese democracy, there in rendering Axl Rose’s political musings, at best prophetic, and at worst ill-timed, such was his slovenly work rate.

But for better or for worse, here’s the new Guns N’ Roses album. Cursed under the weight of years of waiting, this album was always going to be an anti-climax and virtually every moment of Chinese Democracy seems over-thought and overworked, often stifling the decent songs within.

Unsurprisingly, from the man who always thought more was more, this is excessive to excess, and woefully flabby in places, especially on anthemic moments like ‘Catcher in the Rye’ and ‘Street of Dreams’, but there are still enough momentary flashes of the old steel that made the Appetite for Destruction so good.